Thursday, August 15, 2013

Cynthia Wroclawski , Manager of the Shoah Victims' Names Recovery
Project grants
Jalen Schlosberg the "twinning" certificate honoring the
memory of his
3rd cousin Haim Okham who was murdered in the Holocaust

Growing up in the United States,
the Privens did not know much about their family history or the tragic fate of
relatives from their father’s ancestral village of Pavoloch during the
Holocaust. Driven to uncover their family roots, siblings Lew and Cheryl Priven
embarked on a genealogical search that began with a trip to the Ukraine,
followed by an important discovery of new information on Yad Vashem’s Central
Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, ultimately having an enormous impact on the
Priven family through their newly discovered direct connection to the
Holocaust. The discovery of previously unknown living relatives culminated in
an emotional reunion of extended family in the US and Israel and a moving Bar
Mitzvah ceremony "twinning" Jalen Schlosberg, Lew Priven’s grandson,
with one of his unknown cousins, who was murdered during the Holocaust.

This week Jalen Schlosberg and his
extended family marked his Bar Mitzvah with a unique guided tour of the
Holocaust History Museum that highlighted the family's personal link to the
Holocaust. The pinnacle of this special visit took place in the Yad Vashem
synagogue where the family participated in an emotional commemoration and
"twinning" ceremony in which Jalen took it upon himself to honor and
uphold the memory of his "twin", his third cousin, Haim Okham who was
murdered in the Holocaust at the age of 13 and robbed of his opportunity to experience
a fulfilling life, including his own Jewish coming of age ceremony.

Cheryl (Priven) Finkelstein and Lew Priven at the Bar Mitzvah "twinning"ceremony describing their journey to the town of Pavoloch, Ukraine andthe research into their family's direct connection to the Holocaust

During the ceremony, Lew recounted
his father's stories from his native Ukrainian village, describing how he
initially imagined it as the Jewish shtetl from Fiddler on the Roof
before he became interested in his family roots and visited the town of
Pavoloch for himself. Overcome with emotion, Lew described in detail his 2011
journey with his sister, Cheryl to their father’s hometown. During the retelling of the story, Lew’s
grief was evident as he had to pause and fight back tears, detailing how he
came upon the mass grave and the stark monument marking the horrific massacre
of the 1,500-member Jewish community on September 5, 1941. In a poignant
message to his grandson warning against apathy to others, Lew recounted Martin
Niemoller's poem and concluded with a valuable lesson saying, "As Jews we
must not remain indifferent to the suffering of anyone, anywhere."

Jalen Schlosberg with his parents Barry and Beth and sister Marley
celebrate his Bar mitzvah with
extended family at Yad Vashem. The
commemoration ceremony highlighted the
discovery of a living Priven
relative found through Pages of Testimony he submitted in 1999.

Jalen's great-aunt, Cheryl (Priven)
Finklestein explained how she had studied the Holocaust for many years and how
the discovery of living relatives through Pages of Testimony at Yad Vashem
transformed her connection to a personal one that directly affected her family.
She discovered Haim Okham and 4 other
murdered members of his family only recently after searching for Pages of
Testimony commemorating them in the Names Database. The Pages of
Testimony were submitted in 1999 by a person
named Rudolf Priven who then lived in Salt
Lake City, Utah, after emigrating from Russia in the early 1990's.

Now 75, Rudolf Priven is a retired
physician who grew up in the Ural Mountains area after he and his mother,
Fanya, were sent there by the Soviets from Kiev. The two groups of Privens
compared notes when they subsequently met together with their spouses and
confirmed that they are second cousins: Rudolf’s grandfather, Haskel Priven,
was a brother of Morris Priven, the grandfather of Lew and Cheryl. Morris had
left Pavoloch for the United States in 1922 and settled in Boston, where he
worked as a carpenter. Julius Priven, a son of Morris and the father of Lew and
Cheryl, spent his working life in kosher meat markets. Lew and Cheryl had
diagrammed a detailed family tree based on conversations with their father. The
tree also proved invaluable in establishing the connection to Rudolf Priven’s
side of the family.

The importance of this find was staggering for
the entire family. Cheryl said, "We managed to find a living family member
that we would never have known. I want to thank all of those at Yad Vashem who
work on the Names Database project. It feels like a miracle rising from the
ashes to me".

For more information about the Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project please contact: names.outreach@yadvashem.org